Desktops aren't meant for clutter, but they often end up as a repository for our daily work until piles of icons make it nearly impossible to find anything at all. As insurmountable—or at least time-consuming—as this problem may seem, you can get your desktop under control pretty quickly with the help of these three icons.

Here's how you make the magic happen:

Put everything on your desktop in a folder, have that folder display as a list, and keep it on your screen.

Download these icons (includes several formats so everybody's happy) and create folders for each one labeled Inbox, Outbox, and Now.

Go through the folder of desktop crap you created earlier and start sorting into your new desktop icon folders. If you're working on the file right now, it goes in the Now folder. If you've finished working on the file, put it in the Outbox folder. If you have yet to start work on the file, put it in the Inbox folder. When you actually do start work on that file, move it over to the Now folder. When you're finished with it, stick it in the Outbox.

You'll also want to set aside 30 minutes each week to archive anything in the Outbox folder that has since been dealt with. You can organize those files however you like. If you want to be lazy or just save yourself some time by not doing anything at all, you can just automate the archival process.